L084 · Asking well · 2 min
Limits make answers better
Clear limits like a word count, a budget or a reading level push AI past its most generic answer.
01 · The idea
Ask for "ideas for a team lunch" and you get the usual list. Ask for "ideas for a team lunch for 12 people in District 3, under 150,000 dong each, two vegetarians, back by 1:30" and the list becomes usable.
Good limits come from real life: money, time, place, people, tools, rules. Each one rules out options that would never work for you, so the model spends its effort on the ones that might.
Style limits help too. "Use words a 12 year old knows." "No more than 100 words." "No jargon." "Only use what is in the text I pasted." The last one is one of the best ways to keep answers grounded.
Too many limits can tie it in knots. If the answer gets strange, check whether two of your limits fight each other, like "very detailed" and "under 50 words".
02 · Think of it like this
It is like a cooking show challenge. "Cook something" is dull. "Cook something with these five ingredients in 20 minutes" gets creative.
03 · Do it now
04 · Quick check
Words in this lesson
See also
L086Asking well · 2 min
Ask for sources, then open them
A source is only useful once you open it and see that it really says what the AI claims.
L099AI at work · 3 min
Read research papers with AI
AI can walk you through a research paper section by section, so you understand what was studied, what was found and how sure to be.
L100AI at work · 2 min
Take better notes with AI
Take your own rough notes first, then let AI tidy, organise and quiz you on them, so writing them still does its job.
L064How AI thinks · 2 min
How AI shows it is unsure
Chatbots often sound equally confident when they know and when they guess, so you have to ask them to show their doubt.